House for Rent

Ok so this is kinda weird, but I wanted to throw it out there. We need someone to rent out our townhouse. With Dwayne leaving for bootcamp sometime in the next 8 months we need it rented out ASAP. It is available January 1st. If you know of anyone looking to rent right now in Flagstaff please pass on my information to them. My email is [email protected]. I will update later on the newest news going on in our family.

More funeral pictures

Here are some more from the funeral and some pictures of family. They aren't very clear. I don't know what was going on with the camera. As I was looking through my photos I realized I didn't take very many. I need to be better at that.

Most of my cousins


Karissa and Kymani

Most of my cousins with my Grandma

My family minus my brother Greg's family. He was able to come but without his family. We missed them but look foward to seeing them in a couple weeks.

Adelynn's 4th birthday and Grandpa Barrus' funeral

So I need to post about Adelynn and my Grandpa. Adelynn turned 4 on September 30th. She is very luck to share a birthday with my Grandfather. He passed away the day before he was going to turn 84. We we able to go to Idaho for the funeral. It was a great time to see cousins I had not seen in almost 10 years. A very bittersweet time. My grandfather was such a wonderful man. Until I was in 5th grade we were lucky to live right down the street from my grandparents. We spent the summers and falls working in the garden, planting, weeding, picking, snapping, shucking, and all of the fun things that come along with gardens. I also had the opportunity to spring clean my grandmothers house with my cousin Tasha and mow my grandparents lawn twice a week during the summer. I enjoyed all the time and all the benefits of helping with the garden and helping my grandparents. I am so grateful for that opportunity to learn how to work at such a young age. So here are some pictures of my cute little 4 year old's birthday and my grandfathers funeral. A time to celebrate life and the blessings of knowing that there is life after death.

Here she is my big 4 year old. I can't believe how times flies.

Dwayne and Nolan eating ice cream and cake. YUM!

And the presents. Barbies, Cinderella, a tutu, a barbie car and clothes I think.

My Grandfather's casket

Halloween

So here are some Halloween pictures. I forgot we celebrate Halloween 4 times. We were able to go to 2 parties in Phoenix the weekend before. Needless to say, Adelynn and Nolan had a blast this Halloween and loved the time they got to spend with their cousins.

Adelynn and Lincoln

Here is a picture of Nolan and another little boy that had the same costume

Adelynn getting reading to throw

Nolan loved the little duck pond. I think he went back to it 5 times or so.

My cute little kids.

CHANGE

Well, yes its been a while. Life has been so crazy I thought it was time I updated. Well as with my other pregnancies/babies being born our life has taken a huge turn in the direction we were going. Dwayne was laid off from his job a couple weeks ago. Luckily we have been looking for other jobs so now the look is now more intense. I really hope my theory about something major happening everytime I am pregnant does not continue. In the past Dwayne has talked about joining the military. Well we think that now is the time. We still have to do some fasting and make a visit to the temple to make sure this is the right direction for our family, but it feels good as of now. Things will be hard while he is gone and there is even a possibility he may miss the birth of our 3rd bundle of joy. When I tell people this they think it is crazy but when I think about everything that many other people and families have gone through to make this the free country that it is, I feel at peace. I think about our ancestors and the sacrifices they made and this is minimal. He will have the opportunity to serve this wonderful country that we both love very much and he will also have the opportunity to continue his education and get some further training which is much needed in these crazy economic times in order to keep up with what he wants to do. If we make this decision he will be sworn in next week and leave sometime between now and the middle of January pending the availability of his job he is placed in. If we do not make the decision to do this he will be even more seriously job searching anywhere in Arizona and we are even open to Utah. So if you hear of anything please let me know.

The kids had a wonderful Halloween. Adelynn was Cinderlla and Nolan was a dragon. We had a blast at the festival at my work (Flagstaff Athletic Club) as well as at the trunk or treat at church. I will post pictures as soon as I find the camera.

Pregnancy is going great. We ended up deciding not to find out what we were having. We found out with both Adelynn and Nolan and decided why not wait with this one. It adds a little more excitment to the whole thing.

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving and seeing my family in Utah. Now that Dwayne is unemployed we are able to be there just as long as I get the time off. As we go into this wonderful holiday season (my favorite time of year!!!!) I have been reflecting on all of the blessings I have in my life. I feel so grateful to live in the United States of America and enjoy all of the freedom's and rights we have. I also feel grateful to belong to such a wonderful family. I am grateful for the way my parents raised me and the work ethic, generosity, sacrifice, and all of the other values that they instilled in myself and all of my brothers and sisters. I truely am blessed to be married to my best friend and have Adelynn and Nolan (although being a parent isn't easy) in my life. To be a parent and raising kids in these crazy times is a very humbling experience. I am also thankful for the people I can always count on in my life and will help out at a moments notice.

Well I think I've gone on long enough. Hopefully I'll have pictures up soon.

Summer fun

So here are some pictures of what we were up to this summer. I can't believe it is already September. Halloween is 1 1/2 months away and Thanksgiving 2 1/2 months and you got it Christmas is 3 ish months away. So many of you may know that Christmas is my favorite season. We were watching family videos and recording them onto DVD the other night, and I got so excited about Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. My favorite part about it all is the time we get to spend with family. My family is so spread out that we don't get to see eachother too often maybe once or twice a year. Sooooo my favorite part about the season is family time!!!!!! It just puts a smile on my face thinking about all of the get togethers and how many people we have squished into a small house because nobody wanted to miss out on anything. I think the record is about 20 ish into an I think 1000 sqft house. Let's just say wall to wall mattressess and I think my parents slept in the kitchen. :-) I LOVE FAMILY!!!

ok so the picture thing was taking too long and I really need to go to bed. Maybe I will find time tomorrow...

LIFE

So, the past 4 months have been crazy. I am determined to get back on track and start posting once/week. We'll see if it actually happens... I have lots of pictures to post so stay tuned. I guess the biggest news is that I am pregnant. I am about 13 weeks along. I have been feeling awful and am glad that this whole sickness thing is almost over. I still have to be very careful what I eat otherwise we have issues. My due date is March 9th. We are very excited and as with my two other kiddos/pregnancies came lots of surprises and changes to our life. Stay tuned as I update you on some things that are going on. It just feels good to be back to almost normal. Hooray!!! All I can say during these past months is thank goodness for Unisom (I think that is how you spell it). That is what got me through this, I couldn't bear forking out $20/pill for zofran, although I've heard it works great for most people. Oh wells here's to feeling better!

Skiing!!!!

Ok so Dwayne and I FINALLY got up to snowbowl to have some fun. I haven't been skiing in 3 or 4 years due to being pregnant or nursing or something. I was nervous when we first started but within a couple runs I was feeling very good and was kicking myself for not getting up there earlier this season. It was an amazing day. A little cold because of the wind but the snow was great. I LOVE SPRING SKIING. To any of you skiers/snowboarder out there. I am going again on my birthday Monday March 17. You are all invited to come if you can. Just throwing it out there. Figured we'd finish out the season with a big bang and I am definately planning on going a ton more next season... pending any unforseen circumstances. Ya just never know when the Egyptian flu is going to hit....

Tag I'm it!!

Okay Okay. Here it goes. I know it took forever (sorry Kymi). I will try and be better.


Rules:
· The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.· Each player answers the questions about themselves.
· At the end of the post, the player then tags 4 people, and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged, and asking them to read your blog.

1. 10 years ago...
I was getting ready to graduate High School. Man I can't believe how time has gone by. I think too right around this time we were headed on a ski trip for ski club. High School was a pretty good time. The thing I miss most right at this moment is the mandatory 2-3 hour workout thanks to volleyball and basketball and also not having any responsibility.

2. 5 things on my 2-do list...
Clean my house (man does it need it badly)
Cut Dwayne's hair (long overdue)
Laundry
Gym for a good cardio
Make and excel spreadsheet and finish up planning New Beginnings

3. Things I would do if I was a millionaire
- Travel, Travel, Travel, Travel
the places... Eurpose, Figi, New Zealand, Hawaii, New York, Africa for a Safari,
those are just where I'd start
- Buy a large house with at least 5 acres attached to it, with a smaller house in back for my parents to come and stay for a long time
- Buy a jeep wrangler just for the heck of it
- I would also buy the new porsche crossover they just unveiled. Pretty sweet and it would fit my family perfectly right now
- Disneyland for a week with a babysitter in tow
- Hire a maid to come and clean my house, do my laundry etc... how about a live in one. Yeah that's what I'm talking about!!!!!
- week at a spa with some friends
- Buy lots of toys, boat, quads, a motorcoach
- Go and visit my Grandparents in Idaho for a couple months.
- Start some sort of scholarship
- Ok lets just face it the list could go on and on. I do have a list of 100 dreams somewhere. This is just a few. Most important would be to spend so much time with my family that they got sick of me and my family....!!!!

4. 3 bad habits I have
- Fast food
- chocolate
- not making my bed (I figure what's the point of making it when I'm going to get right back in it in 10 hours, okay okay, I'm working on this one!!!)

5. 5 places I've lived
* Sugar City, Idaho
* Denver, Colorado
* Flagstaff, AZ
* Hamilton, New Zealand
* Yuma, AZ

6. 5 jobs I have had
* Scorekeeper for the City of Yuma
* Customer service at my parents bookstore
* Kava Juice manager
* Admin. Assistant at NAU Office of Residence life
* Day care person at Flagstaff Athletic Club

7. Some things people don't know about me.
* I love to dance and music is the one thing that really gets inside of me and inspires me. When I hear a good song, I totally feel like dancing even in public. It gets down in my heart and makes me feel good. I'm seriously contemplating taking some dance lessons and getting back into it.
* I have a secret desire to be a face model. I would love to be one of those models that they just take pictures of their face. I think it would be fun .
* I love to ski and I love water sports, and I love the beach!!!
* I used to want to be a movie star when I was young (not so much anymore)
* When I was little I used to love to clean the toilet. Ok yeah I know kinda weird.
* When I was little I used to tell my mom that all I wanted to do when I grew up was be a mom like her. To this day that is what I want, of course with a ton of adventure along the way.
* I want to become certified to skydive on my own.

Ok I think that is it. So I tag Angela, Josie, and Jamelle. Have fun. If you've already done it sorry.

Names

This has been on my mind lately due to some recent encounters. So when you name your child, for us it was a huge responsiblity. For our kids we wanted something unique, nothing mainstream or any name that was popular. We searched baby books, looked at top 100 lists to make sure the names we were picking weren't on there. That's just us. So we come across the name Adelaide. We loved it but we thought we'd modernize it a little and call her Adelynn. Ok we totally thought we were making it up. We didn't even realize how close it was to Madelynn or Madison. So come to find out these days that the name Adelynn is on the top 100 list. OK, so let's just say how frustrated that makes me. I even thought the other day that we should rename her (just a passing thought). We also find out that along with the girl she was a flower girl with, who is the same age, who's name is Adelynn, that one of Dwayne's old mission companions has a girl and they named her Adelynn (he hasn't talked to him since his mission). FRUSTRAING. And get this, so one of the boy names that I really like is Colby or Kolby (either spelling) and they just had a little boy and guess what they named him, you got it. I guess I'm glad it wasn't Nolan because that would be too freaky.
Is my frustration with this unreasonable???? What am I to do. I decided that I would name my next girl Gertrude, I don't think anyone would use that, do you???? :)
Just doing a little venting. Anyone else feeling the same way????
I guess it's not the name but what our kids make of it and how they define themselves, and the place they make in the World, setting themselves apart from everyone else that counts......... but it's still frustrating!

Time

It's hard to believe that another year has gone by. I've been meaning to get this blog going but I just haven't found the time. Well I am going to try a little better to stay on top of it. As you can see, I posted some old pictures a while ago. I will try and post some newer ones of the kids and Dwayne and I. I will try and keep up with it this year.
As I'm typing this I can hear Nolan coughing up a storm. And I wonder, what do you do with a coughing 19 month old when the medicine doesn't work and the vicks vapo rub does not work. I am on a quest to find the answer. Thank goodness for the internet. What would I do without it.

Recommittment

So, basically life has been very crazy lately. I am ready for a long vacation by myself.
After the holiday's totally throwing me for a loop for a good 4 weeks I am now recommitted. Recommitted to a lot of things. I am one of those who waits to do my new committments (I like that since new year's resolutions usually only last about 6 weeks). These are lifestyle changes that I am determined to keep or change. About 1 year ago my family committed to eachother to kind of have a 'Biggest Loser' just for us. It totally got me going and rethinking the way I eat etc... I can't believe thtat I have let me, myself go as far as I have gone. But it happens, you get busy in life and exercise and eating right, at least for me, went straight to the bottom of my priority list. So it was good to recommitt. I decided I needed somewhere to work out because the work out videos I spent 50 bucks on (thanks for never letting me forget it Dwayne :), but hey it got me going so it was well worth it). So anyway I started working at the athletic club to get a free membership. MAN O' MAN is it worth it. I go 5-6 days a week. It is totally addicting. Although I don't know if it is the 2 hour break from my kids or the exercise, probably a little bit of both. So after not doing a whole lot for a couple weeks over the holiday's, I am back to it. After my first good sweat, I was recommitted. Anyway here's to recommittments.
I do think life is full of them, always trying to become a better person, failing, then starting over, but usually always from a closer starting point. I think that is how it will be when we die, not did I die finally living a perfect life, but how many times did I fail and then pick myself up (sometimes pry myself off the pavement with a little help) and do a little bit better the next time. It makes me happy to know this. Anyway, Here's to recommitment!!!!